This meta-analysis summarized findings from 65 studies using the hidden profile paradigm (101 independent effects, 3,189 groups). Results showed (a) groups mentioned two standard deviations more pieces of common information than unique information; (b) hidden profile groups were eight times less likely to find the solution than were groups having full information; (c) two measures of information pooling, including the percentage of unique information mentioned out of total available information (the information coverage measure) and the percentage of unique information out of total discussion (the discussion focus measure), were positively related to decision quality, but the effect of information coverage was stronger than that of discussion focus; and communication medium did not affect (d) unique information pooling or (e) group decision quality. Group size, total information load, the proportion of unique information, task demonstrability, and hidden profile strength were found to moderate these effects. Results are discussed in terms of how they offer conceptual advancement for future hidden profile research.

This article conceptualizes how the affordances of enterprise social networking systems can help reduce three challenges in sharing organizational knowledge. These challenges include location of expertise, motivation to share knowledge, and social capitalization in the form of developing and maintaining social ties with knowledge providers to actualize knowledge sharing. Building on previous theories and empirical research on transactive memory theory, public goods theory, and social capital theories, as well as recent research on enterprise social media, we argue that the affordances of enterprise social networking systems can better address these knowledge sharing challenges than those of conventional knowledge management systems in that social networking applications can blend connective and communal sharing of knowledge.Key words: enterprise social networking, social media, knowledge sharing, transactive memory, information public goods, social capital. doi:10.1111/jcc4.12033Today's economy runs on knowledge, and most companies work assiduously to capitalize on that fact. -Wenger & Snyder, 2000, p. 139 A key challenge for contemporary organizations is connecting and sharing knowledge that is distributed throughout the organization by linking people to each other and to knowledge content (Orlikowski, 2002). Organizations have developed conventional knowledge management (KM) systems to coordinate knowledge movement in the organization and leverage the organization's knowledge resources. Conventional KM systems rely on a variety of technologies, including data warehousing, decision support systems, project management systems, expert systems, expert directories, intranets and extranets, and groupware. In the wake of the relatively limited success of such formal systems for what is essentially an informal, interpersonal process (Hinds & Pfeffer, 2003;LaMonica, 2006), organizations are increasingly experimenting with a variety of enterprise social media (ESM) tools as potential solutions to the problems of knowledge coordination (Yehuda, McNabb, Young, Burnes, & Reiss-Davis, 2008). ESM are enterprisewide ''Internet-based technologies that allows users to easily create, edit, evaluate and/or link to content or to other creators of content (c.f., Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010) '' (Majchrzak, Faraj, Kane, & Azad, 2013), and include such applications as wikis, blogs, social tagging systems, social bookmarking systems, microblogs, and enterprise social networking (ESNS) systems.In this article we focus specifically on ESNS, for two reasons. First, ESNS are increasingly part of companies' arsenal for achieving knowledge management goals (Brown, Schadler, & Catino, 2008;Cheung & Lee, 2010;Leidner, Koch, & Gonzalez, 2010). Second, the networking aspect of the applications directly addresses the need for connecting knowledge users to each other and to knowledge content. Networking highlights that knowledge sharing is as much as an interpersonal as a technological process. Social network systems (SNS) are ''web-based services ...

This research studied homophily of network ties in distributed teams in both task‐related instrumental networks and non‐task related expressive networks. Homophily of network ties was examined in terms of demographic and social characteristics, including gender, race, geographic location, and group assignment. Social network data were collected from 32 students enrolled in a distance learning class from two universities. MQAP regression analysis showed that homophily in gender and in race had no significant impact on the development of either instrumental or expressive ties. In instrumental networks, both homophily in group assignment and in location had significant impact on the development of network ties. In expressive networks, homophily in location had significant impact on the development of network ties, but the impact of homophily in group membership was only marginally significant. Further analysis of bonding ties with people of the same group and bridging ties with people from different groups showed that bonding social capital can exert significant influence on performance.

This research tested a transactive theory model of how individuals allocate and retrieve task-related information in work teams. It extended prior research by exploring the role of communal information repositories in the context of human information resources. Structural equation modeling of six integrated hypotheses revealed several significant results. First, usage of information repositories was significantly related to individual access to information. However, the relationship between individual direct information exchange with team members (the human repositories) and individual access to information was significant only among average-level users of organizational information repositories. Second, development of individual expertise directories significantly influenced individual direct information exchange with team members. Third, perceived usage of organizational information repositories by team members significantly influenced actual usage. Finally, technology-specific competence in using intranets significantly influenced the actual usage of intranets as organizational information repositories.

Building on Kozlwoski and Klein’s emergence framework, this research developed and tested a set of multilevel hypotheses regarding individual and team transactive memory processes in work teams. Literature from social psychology suggested hypotheses on how shared task interdependence influences individual expertise exchange. Social network theory suggested hypotheses that individual expertise exchange is channeled according to communication tie strength. Using data collected from 218 individuals from 18 organizational teams, the proposed hypotheses were tested using hierarchical linear modeling techniques. The results showed that at the individual level the relationship between directory development and expertise exchange was mediated by communication tie strength and moderated by shared task interdependence.Team-level variables also were significantly related to individual-level outcomes such that individual expertise exchange happened more frequently in teams with well-developed team-level expertise directories, as well as with higher team communication tie strength and shared task interdependence.